BOSTON — Having already enhanced his players' viewing pleasure this week by presenting each a copy of "The Complete History of the Celtics," Boston coach Doc Rivers informed the team Friday morning about one not-so-glorious nugget of franchise lore that wasn't included on the 19-hour DVD compilation.

Tim Duncan, in his eight NBA seasons, has never lost to the Celtics.

"It's a streak that has to be broken, as far as I'm concerned," Rivers told the team at its shootaround. "Reverse the curse."

For now, at least, it appears any curse-reversing in Beantown best be left to the Red Sox. Duncan added one more notch on his belt Friday night as the Spurs rallied from a 13-point deficit to defeat Boston 92-84 in front of 15,586 fans at the Fleet Center.

The Spurs' sixth consecutive victory, which looked somewhat similar to the one they carved out 24 hours earlier in Philadelphia, left them with an 8-1 record, their best nine-game start in 23 years. It also stretched their string of victories over the Celtics to 14, the last 13 of which have included Duncan.

"I think this year we have something good going," Spurs guard Tony Parker said. "We don't waste any games like we did last year."

The Spurs didn't squander much Friday, despite trailing 66-53 with 2:48 remaining in the third quarter. Malik Rose and Robert Horry jump-started the comeback, leaving Manu Ginobili to serve as the closer for the second night in a row.

In the final 6:27, Ginobili made three 3-pointers, drew back-to-back offensive fouls on the Celtics and fed Duncan for an easy dunk. He finished with 21 points.

"He did what he usually does," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He's a heck of a competitor. He does a lot of things to win basketball games."

After helping produce 11 consecutive points down the stretch in Thursday's victory over Philadelphia, Ginobili spent the hours leading up to Friday's game getting treatment for assorted bumps and bruises, most notably a sore right hip. Popovich, wanting to give Ginobili as much rest as possible, left him on the bench for almost seven minutes before reinserting him with 7:23 remaining and the Celtics leading 72-71.

"When I was on the bench in the fourth quarter, I saw we were not the aggressive team we should be," Ginobili said. "When we changed our mentality, our confidence went up."

The Spurs' reserves, Ginobili said, had a lot to do with that. After Boston hiked its lead to 13 points late in the third quarter, Popovich sat Duncan and Ginobili.

Rose (five points, four rebounds) and Horry (five points, two assists) — along with Brent Barry and Devin Brown — promptly provided the energy the team was missing as the Spurs reeled off 14 unanswered points. When Duncan returned with 9:41 remaining, the score was tied.

"I was refreshed, but I was a little nervous," Duncan said. "I didn't want to go in there and mess up all the work they did."

Duncan did just fine, scoring 10 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter.

"We had a 12-point lead and it didn't even look like it bothered him," said Al Jefferson, the Celtics' 19-year-old rookie forward. "He just kept playing."

For the better part of three quarters, Boston looked ready to end its eight-season drought against Duncan. The Celtics held a 28-16 rebounding edge at the half, including an 8-1 advantage on the offensive glass.

"They really took it to us," Popovich said. "I thought we didn't meet that very well. But as the second half wore on, we did a good job of handling it."

As the Spurs leaned on their experience, the Celtics unraveled. They committed eight turnovers in the fourth quarter, half coming on consecutive possessions. In the closing minutes, Paul Pierce delivered hard fouls to both Duncan and Parker.

Pierce had as much reason to be as frustrated as anyone. He has been with the Celtics for 11 of their losses to Duncan.

BOSTON — Twenty-four hours after he took only two shots in a victory over Philadelphia, Tony Parker showed Friday night his right arm remains in working order.

Parker scored 16 points against Boston, making seven of 12 shots. Among those was a 3-pointer he buried early in the final quarter that greatly aided the Spurs' comeback.

"It just depends on the game," Parker said. "I thought (Thursday) night they did a good job blitzing on the pick and rolls, so I tried to get the ball to other people quickly. Tonight I had more shots open and I took them."

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after watching film of Thursday's game he didn't think Parker passed up too many shots.

"He probably could have shot the ball a little more here and there," Popovich said. "But he was really determined to play great 'D' on (Allen) Iverson and do his best to distribute the ball. If we were a better-shooting team, he'd have a lot more assists."

Handle with care: Popovich said Manu Ginobili's frenetic pace has led him to play the guard for shorter stretches in games.

Ginobili is still averaging close to 30 minutes; Popovich just doesn't want him on the floor for 12 minutes at a time.

Ginobili bruised his right hip Thursday, which only increased his coach's concern.

"Eighty-two games is a long time to be throwing yourself around, hitting the deck, banging into people and playing at that clip," Popovich said. "We give him more rest during the game than we do anybody else. He gets his minutes but he doesn't play 12 in a row like a lot of guys.

"I don't want him to run out of gas."

Odds and ends: Friday's tipoff was delayed 11 minutes after the Spurs noticed one of the baskets was not at the correct height. ... The team improved to 2-0 without assistant coach P.J. Carlesimo. After having jury duty in San Antonio this week, Carlesimo will rejoin the Spurs today in Toronto. Said Popovich: "I'm not sure if we're going to let him come back."

"When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at this rock perhaps 100 times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow, it will split in two and I know it was not that blow that did it. But all that had gone before." - Jacob Riis

I think Pop is handling Manus minutes on the court really well... he is using him just the exact amout of minutes Manu can play every game in a long season without a performance drop... Manu is a incredible energy spender, i prefer a lot of great games from him, that some fantastic and others just bad.

I think Pop is handling Manus minutes on the court really well... he is using him just the exact amout of minutes Manu can play every game in a long season without a performance drop... Manu is a incredible energy spender, i prefer a lot of great games from him, that some fantastic and others just bad.

Besides, Manu does more in 30 min that most players in 35/42 min...

Good points. I love Manu in that he leaves it all on the court. Homeboy doesn't even try to pace himself. Fortunately we have a good enough bench that he can do this and trust that his replacement will be able to perform. After all the $ that the Spurs organization has spent on these players the last couple years, its time the team gives them another championship.

Wow, Pop better not post here about Parker's performance, he will get an earful. Of course as far as TP is concerned, Pop's opinion of his play should be all that matters, and if the guy is happy, just keep doing what your doing.

I like how this team is shaping up. So far they have overcome their bad shooting nights with great defense, and only in the Sonics game were they unable to play decent D. I like their mental toughness in the last 2 games, both games would have been losses last year.